Your Past Defines Your Future
by behappypeople
Summary: What if humanities, and the galaxies, past was much different from that which we know - how will the future be affected? How does Humanities 4 Superpowers deal with first contact individually? Rated T for Language and violence.
1. Introduction - Timeline

**Your Past defines your Future**

This is going to have some elements of Halo in it but nothing like story mainly technology (the slipspace drive). Also! This isnt canon, there are no reapers. I'm using mass effect as the galatic basis etc. If you dont like that then dont read, if you do – I hope you enjoy!

100,000 Years BCSE: Prothean empire rises.

85,000 Years BCSE: Citadel and Mass relays built for ease of living and transport.

50,000 Years BCSE: Protheans discover the Rachni, they spread like a wildfire and devour everything in their path. The prothean empire is falls and the protheans are now extinct.

40,000 Years BCSE: Over 12,000 Rachni nests die off due to lack of food, a single survives by turning cannibal for food. They enter a long term stasis when food once more becomes short.

Rachni wars: It is believed the rachni were defeated as a good 80% of them were killed while barely coming out of Stasis, the singlular queen cannot reproduce drones quick enough and is evnetually killed.

(The rest of the Mass effect history is the same, until now obviously).

May 1945: Allied Forces defeat Hitlers Nazi Germany.

June 1945: In a surprise move allied forces (minus Russia) continue east to liberate territory gained by Russia through WWII

November 1945: Caught of guard, russia lost substantial ground and the main russian force was pushed back to the edge of Russia's borders.

June 1946: After a bloody war in which hundreds of thousands of soldiers lives were lost, the russian army has been pushed back almost completely to moscow by European forces from the west (including some from the remaining german army) and the chinese and asian allies from the east.

January 1947: After a bloody last stand, in which many prototype weapons were deployed by allied forces through german engineers, the Russian forces are defeated and Stalin is removed from power.

February 1948: A union of european countries is established among the mainland powers including Germany, France, the netherlands and belgium in order to prevent another world war. Britain refuses to join.

April 1948: China see's the opportunity to expand as the rest of asia, minus the commonwealth countries, are severely lacking in power and invades Japan, Korea and the phillipenes.

June 1948: Understanding the risks of becoming it's own state in a world shown to be prone to violence, Ireland choses to remain a part of the commonwealth.

March 1950: The newly established European Union has greatly increased in power and size coming to a total of 13 member states over it's short 2 year life-span. The economy Is booming and trade is great. The UK still refuses to enter talks to join much to the delight of the Commonwealth, despite this however the EU and UK's relationships are fantastic.

May 1950: The countries of south america decide to take a note from their northern counterparts and unite under a single banner, the SSA (States of South America). It is believed by many conspiracy theorists that this power play was orchestrated by surviving high ranking Nazi's who fled to the region at the fall of Nazi germany – though nothing concrete is found.

September 1950: Seeing the power play in Asia and South America, the EU moves to increase it's own size and power through the UK and Russia – the UK again refuses to enter talks however Russia is much more open as they are undergoing a severe economic crisis.

March 1951: All 19 EU member states adopt a singular currency, the Euro.

June 1951: Russia becomes a member state of the EU, many EU citizens are in uproar over this but are immediately silenced when large natural gas deposits are discovered in Russian territory.

August 1951: The UK and it's commonwealth become unnerved through the number of powerplays in 'modern' times, the entirity of the commonwealth once again unite under the banner of HME (His Majesties Empire) though the 'states' do retain their countries name etc

October 1951: Westminster remains the seat of power for all HME however, all but the most important matters (war, currency and international politics) are devolved to the individual Parliaments in the 'states' of HME.

January 1952: An alliance is proposed between the USA, EU and HME to devote resources and money to landing a man on the moon and beyond.

February 1952: The Euro crashes and as a result the EU must withdraw from the Alliance now known as the SA, Space Alliance.

April 1952: HME finally announces that after much, much effort and time the Empire shall adopt a singular currency – The Pound. Skepticism is high after the Euro crash however the pound is infact not a singular currency, but rather many different ones rallied under one banner with an equal exhange rate. Any form of the pound can be used in any member of HME.

2nd June 1952: Queen Elizabeth the II is coronated the new Head of state for HME.

July 1952: China continues it's expansion though is careful to avoid commonwealth territory, china now ranks as the worlds 3rd largest superpower, behind HME and the USA.

November 1952: The Euro shows very little signs of recovery. Seeing the disheveled state that Europe is in HME makes a bold move and secure Greenland from Denmark and moves on to secure Iceland which it then Gifts to the USA as a sign of good frienship and to strengthen there relationship. Denmark is in uproar however the EU as a whole refuses to attack Greenland as they fear doing so would invoke the wrath of HME armed forces which have exploded in quantity and quality.

March 1953: First man is sent into space and completes a full orbit before safely crashing in the Atlantic ocean, 'hero' is un-named for un-disclosed reasons.

April 1954: Euro begins it's rise once more and although sitting Fifth in the 'top currency' chart, behind the 1. Pound (all variants classified under 1) 2. US Dollar 3. SSA Quento and 4. Chinese/Japanese Yen.

November 1954: China and its 'protectorates' rally under a single banner, government and currency. It is now known as the Asian Federation, is a communist government and has the Yen as a single currency – unlike the Pound however it is one singular currency like the un-succesful Euro or the very succesful dollar.

January 1957: The whole world watches as Neil Armstrong and Buzz aldrin are the first men to land on the moon using the newly developed Alliance shuttle (basically NASA's re-usable shuttle). Samples of the moon are collected and brought back to the newly established Alliance Science department based in Antartica.

April 1957: The USA begins terraforming Iceland into a training ground for the Alliance forces. Upon completion it will have 8 Primary docks and 16 Secondary docks with Primaries being able to dock Aircraft carriers and secondaries everything else. Note, a secondary dock is actually a collection of 4 docks so essentially the island could have 8 Aircraft carriers and a collection of 64 other ships be they frigates or destroyers.

March 1958: Terraformung of Icland complete, initial plans for Naval bases were a complete success. 9 Airfields begin construction and over 20 seperate barracks constructed for seperate divvisions of the armed forces. A large portion remains untouched as the area is planned to become 'space-ports' for atmospheric launched space functional fighters – ALSFF's.

December 1959: The USA and HME decide that the Alliance shall be the centre for space and new technology whereas they will go about their armed forces and technological devlopments based on the Alliance technology individually. This results in the USA aiming for numbers and size advantages in warfare but HME going for technology and efficiency advantages, this gravely scares all other superpowers as the combination is an all but unstoppable force.

January 1960: The EU has once more re-gained its power and now ranks below the USA but above the Asian federation in terms of power, economy and size. The EU currently stands at 19 member states and looks to secure another 7 in the future years.

September 1960: The Alliance set's it's sights on other planets in the solar system and due to HME drive for efficiency, a new type of engine is desired.

October 1964: Feeling very prone to an invasion from the EU, All African countries unite under a single banner, the nation of Africa, and petition for membership in HME. The HME wants to help and expand it's power base however it feels that taking on so many countries could de-stabilise the pound and as such a decision is made to split africa into two – Norht and south Africa, North becomes a member of HME and South becomes a member of the USA as they offer to take them in as a sign of good faith to their close allies HME.

January 1970: The EU absorbs Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia into it's 'ranks' bringing the number of member states to 26. After much debating and a valid argument, the EU becomes known solely as 'The Union' due to member states outside of Europe.

March 1971: In a counter to The union's power plays moving into the middle east, China secures Kyrgizstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan while an Alliance force secures the rest of the Middle East with the land going to HME – consipiracy theorists believe this to be a play by the Alliance as they have plans to secure South America for the USA.

April 1978: New engine developed by the Alliance – the engine is based around tunneling into the slipstreams of space which greatly reduces time of travel by 10's if not 100's of light years. The asian federation and the Union both launched manned missions to the moon around this time and prepped to begin working on sending a man to mars.

May 1978: 3 ships are outfitted with the Brand new Hereford-Shaw engines, all being Alliance vessels – one ship is a scientific ship while the other two are military vessels. The ships are ready to launch though they are waiting for the military ships to be armed with new weapons that were tested in a secret alliance sub-terranean base on the moon.

November 1978: The SSA finally gives in to the pressure of Argentina and launches an attack on the Falkland Islands with the reasoning that they beling to Argentina therefore the belong to the States of South America. There is no response from HME which greatly surprises the entire world.

March 1979: In a surprise attack, a fleet of 2 Aircraft carriers – the HMS Dauntless and HMS Endeavour – alon with their battle groups of 6 Destroyers and 12 frigates per Carrier appear in SSA waters. The first battlegroup – HMS Dauntless' – continues past the falklands and set's a blockade between the mainland and the island while the 2nd Battlegroup launches the invasion of the Islands.

At the same time, 6 astute class submarines appear up and down the west coast of the SSA and begin a bombardment with their arsenal before disappearing while the forces of the USA invade from the north and secure much of the Northern Sates of the SSA.

November 1979: After a fairly quick campaign the SSA Army is all thats left and the remnants of that are held up in Southern Argentina, they are dispatched with in 2 weeks between a combined Naval and Air Force strike.

February 1980: The weapons are succesfully fired and the 3 ships are launched from antartica heading for Venus as Alliance scientists believe it is more important than Mars. (if only they knew).

May 1980: The AF (Asian Federation) is most succesful with their mission to the moon and launch a manned mission to Mars, the Union is very close behind.

1981: The alliance begins terraformation of the Northern Hemisphere of Venus as the little resources that were present there have been mined. This portion of Venus will be dry docks for the construction and maintainence of the newly proposed HME and USA fleets. Once again the USA will aim for numbers and size while HME will aim for efficiency and technology.

1982: A combined Union and AF scientific team discover the Mars archives, they hide it from the Alliance as they fear an invasion of the planet. They discover the mass effect technology.

1984: AF and Union forces begin construcion of ships based around mass effect technology.

1985: Alliance hackers discover the AF and Unions use of mass effect technology but deem the benefits null.

2000: Construction of all 4 Superpowers fleets are finished – They are as follows;

HME:

Carriers: 10

Dreadnaughts: 20

Destroyers: 160

Frigates: 960

Fighters: 10,550

Seekers: 5

USA:

Carriers: 14

Dreadnaughts: 30

Destroyers: 200

Frigates: 1000

Fighters: 1,2000

Seekers: 0

AF:

Carriers: 0

Dreadnaughts: 38

Destroyers: 203

Frigates: 1,243

Fighters: 16,245

Seekers: 0

The Union:

Carriers: 1

Dreadnaughts: 32

Destroyers 210

Frigates: 1,240

Fighters: 16,000

Seekers: 1

2001: Colonization Drive begins with each superpower headed in their own direction, the USA and HME however have very laxed borders between colonies and work closely on colonization and defense where in certain cases if they each colonise in one system then a single fleet will be left to protect that system.

2010: A mass relay is discovered in the 'Shanxi' system which is an AF system and lies directy on the borders of HME space. A joint scientific team of all superpowers investigates the Relay, it is accidentally activated and the Story begins...


	2. HME Military Codex

**CODEX**

**HME Military**

HME names many systems and planets around historical or current events, features and landmarks etc. For example, a planet resembling mars in many ways other than having an atmosphere akin to earths was terraformed and is now the centre for training all members of the Armed forces, the north-east section (on a flat map) is devoted to training officers of all forces while the other 3 quadrants are devoted to training other members of the armed forces across the planet – this planet is known as the RMAS (Royal Military Academy Sandhurst).

Size: HME spans 11 system's in the Orion belt placing it last in number of systems, it is however in first for the number of colonised planets as each and every colonisable planet in these systems has been colonised – giving a total of 81 colonised planets )of which 5 are devoted to military training, 6 for ship building, another 3 for equipment building and a final 15 for resources).

**Navy**

Carrier: The Queen Elizabeth II class of carrier is based around transporting men, equipment , resources and ships to the battlefield – each carrier can transport 4! destroyers at a time and serves as a dry dock for repairs and re-armament. Each fleet has 1 of these at it's heart. The Royal Navy's flagship is the HMS Queen Elizabeth II

Dreadnaught: The Prince of Wales class dreadnaught is only slightly smaller than the Carrier and two are assigned per carrierthough it is meant solely for war where tha carrier can be used for humanitarian needs. The dreadnaught has the brand new Mark II Rail Gun system that fires a beam of electrolised particles with an all but unlimited range. The result is devastating damage to whatever the beam hits and any particles that stray from the beam upon impact can electrolise metals they come into contact with – the central beam is positively charge and the outer is negatively charged therefore if both stray from the beam and charge the port side negative and starboard positive then the ship will simply crumple if shields are down. It posseses the smaller turret mounted Mark I rail guns for point defense and broadside's along with the Trident Nuclear warheads in missile bays. Each dreadnaught possesses 1 single spine mounted mark II, 10 Mark I's per side and 12 missile bays with a payload of 36 missiles.

Destroyer: There are 12 destroyers per carrier and the destroyers are split into two Categories: Offense and Defense with 6 of each per carrier.

Offense: The type 45 offensive ships are essentially scaled down destroyers with all the same weaponry though smaller profile but only possessing 8 missile bays and 6 mark I's per side. Overall they are very nimble and used for distracting the enemy or flanking them.

Defense: The Type 46 defensive ships posses a highly scaled up Mark I spinal mount which although isn't powerful can still pack a punch, they are primarily outfitted with point defense turrets and so are used as a shield for the fleet though they also have 6 missile bays which can be launched and then the ship can lure enemies into superior firepower of the rest of the fleet.

Frigate:The Type 23 frigates, although deemed expandable by other Superpowers, are infact very important to the Royal Navy. They are used as bombers for the fleet and have limited stealth technology which although would fool no captain in a quiet border patrol they are almost invisible in battle allowing them to sneak in and bring down destroyers and even dreadnaughts. They are outfitted with a smaller Mark II than the Destroyers though it packs a punch – not rivalling the Mark I on defensive destroyers but fairly close – The can tear apart entire fighter wings with a single shot and turn the tide of any battle.

Fighter: The Typhoon fighters are not used as they conventionally would be as hit and run's but are tasked as point defense QRF (quick reaction force) for any fighters or bombers approaching the Main fleet and the frigates.

Seeker: The sandown class seeker has the most advanced piece of stealth technology and serve the role MI5/MI6 once would have in conventional warfare. They also pack the Trident warheads and 4 Typhoon fighters making them vicious to any and all unsusptecting targets. They operate individually.

Each Fleet has a contingent of Royal Marines attached and there is usually a Battalion (what is currently a regiment in 2014) sized force present across the fleet which is used as ship defense, ship to ship boarding and even ground or space station invasion.

The army and Air force are both based in atmosphere on colonies and are there to repel invasions, although each Airmen will have the chance at least once on his career to serve attached to a ship in the navy, and are trained to the upmost standards in excellence and agression.

**CODEX END**


	3. Chapter 1 - HME First contact Part I

**First Contact part I**

**HMS Ingenuity – Science Vessel**

''Sir! We're detecting energy build up from the artifact!'' the operator in command of the sensors all but screamed.

''what kind of energy?'' always the calm, nquisitive man that Captain Williamson was,

''It's consistent with the readings on an AF or Union ship but on a much larger scale, thousands of times larger sir!'' the operator clearly knew his captain would want more specifics.

''Pull back, semd word to the other ships to do the same. We need to know what we're dealing with before we ge ourselves killed'',

''Understood sir'', a few moments later the comms. Operator addressed Captain Williamson ''Captain! The Union Ship _Jaeger_ is refusing to pull back, orders?'',

''Leave them'', ''sir?!''.

''If they refuse to pull back and we open fire then we'll start a war. But if they refuse to pull back then that's not our problem if it backfires, and we'll have guinea pigs to see what happens'',

''Understood sir, shall I inform _AF-S Rising Sun _of the developments?'', The rising sun was the flagship of the battlegroup assigned with patrolling this region of space, as it was AF territory after all.

''Yes, and send word to the _HMS Duke of Cambridge_ to send a battlegroup to the very edge of the system, just in case'', ''aye aye, word away''.

**THV Spirit of Palaven – Turian Dreadnaught **

Captain Tarquin Desolias was an un-happy turian, just 6 months ago he, and his patrol fleet, had been scouting around turian space when a report came in that a notorius group of Batarian pirates was believed to be in his sector. Ever since that damned call he's been chasing these pirates through system after system, relay after relay – 2 dreadnaughts, 8 destroyers and the requisite frigates and fighters all to track down a bunch of pirates with no more than the equivalent of a small dreadnaught and 5 destroyers.

Don't get him wrong, hes glad to get some ation but this is seriously overkill for chasing pirates. Ah well, no matter. We're coming up on the edge of known space, no more relays and no where else to run.

''Captain, sir!'', ''at ease corporal, what do you have?'',

''we're set to come out of FTL in 2 minutes sir. Batarian signatures haven't moved, they're set around the relay and there formation says they may be desperate enough to open the relay''.

''Understood, get Victus on the comms.'', ''sir!''.

''Ah, captain desolias, what can I do for you?'',

''General, we'll be exiting FTL soon. Have your many ready to board and repel boarders. We need prisoners for the Hierarchy'',

''Of course captain, we'll be ready. Out''.

''Sir, exiting FTL now!''

**3****rd person in conflict**

The patrol fleet was fired upon as soon as it exited FTL, a hail of Mass accelerator's and photon torpedo's lighting up the shields. Before the fleet could even return fire two frigates were killed and a destroyers shields were almost gone. Upon firing their own salvo the slaver fleet was lit up, their poorly maintained shields struggling under the salvo.

The Turian Captain was about to order another salvo when the relay came online, both fleets too surprised at the occurrence to fire – until a jumpy batarian gunner lit up the small ship that came through, outright destroying it.

**AF-S Rising Sun**

''Captain Xing! We've lost contact with the U-S Jaeger'',

''is that thing a weapon?'',

''negative sir, sensors show the ship was transported quite a distance before we lost contact on the other side!''

''Order the battle-group through, if it's pirates I want them in the brigg last week, and shoot ANYTHING that isn't human'', that last order was met with a lot of blank stares before the training kicked in.

**HMS Ingenuity**

''Captain, the AF ships are prepping to jump through the gate. Orders?''

''Send word to the Cambridge, I want them in-system. And hail the Rising sun and ask her to hold til the cambridge gets here''

''cambridge reports 'aye' sir, the Sun is ignoring our hails''

''God help them if its these protheans''.

**3rd person in conflict**

Both fleets just eyed each other, both captains to stunned by the carelessness of the gunner. Both captains prepping to band together to repel another rachni attack, the rachni would have been a blessing.

The relay lit up once more, though this time instead of a single small ship – 1 dreadnaught class ship accompanied by 3 destroyers and a dozen frigates came through. Guns blazing. The dreadnaught plowed through a Batarian destroyer and opened up its bow on another, rendering it dead in the water. Both fleets opened up on the new comers with a salvo before the batarians jumped to FTL bringing them out in the turian formation and adjusting their positioning to fill the gaps of the turian ranks. Over the next few volleys the _THV Dawn of Parthia _lost it's shields and a third of all destroyers and frigates present were lost at the cost of all but the enemy dreadnaught and a single shieldless destroyer.

The Turian-batarian fleet prepped all weapons to finish off the fleet before sending a transmission asking for the unconditional surrender. There answer was dumbfounding to say the least.

**TSV Spirit of Palaven**

''Sir, message away'',

''Sir! The relay's lighting up, contacts! 1 dreadnaught class, 6 destroyer class and 48 frigate class!''

''Sir! Readings show no sign of eezo, different design from original contacts. Energy build-up detected!''

**3rd person in conflict**

Upon arriving in system, the_ HMS Duke of cambridge_ scanned the system, and the captain didn't like what he saw: 2 fully functioning dreadnaughts and 1 shieldless dreadnaught with an assortment of destroyers and frigates. The cooms. Officer told him current readings showed that AF forces and Royal Navy forces only stacked up to 2 Dreadnaughts, 7 destroyers -one all but killed- and 48 frigates compared to the 3 dreadnaughts, 16 destroyers and 41 frigates. Not a good situation.

The AF captain hailed him and said they were fired upon and wanted revenge, Captain Hawthorne was going to go for a peaceful solution but the AF dreadnaught opened fire and in return the enemy fleet opened up aswell.

**HMS Duke of cambridge **

''Damage report!''

''Shields holding at 82%, no significant damage reported''

''Fleet losses?''

''HMS Invinible was lost as was 3 of her frigates''

''Understood, divert the remaining frigates to bomber duty. Get me a targeting solution on the flagship, have the o-destroyers do the same for the other of that class and then have the frigates strafe their lines. Get the Rising Sun to light up that damaged Dreadnaught!''

''Sir! All away and confirmed sir!''

''Two shots from the mark 2, and a trident on the flagship. Overcharge the Mark I's and hit some of those frigates!''

''Sir, shots away''

**THV Spirit of Palaven**

''By the spirits!, what was that?!''

''Enemy ships using directed energy weapons! By-passed our shields, severe damage to upper levels, weapons offline! Drive core damaged!''

''We lost the Parthia!''

This stunned everone on deck, the parthis and palaven were both new Primarch class dreadnaughts – meant to be nigh indestructible.

''Bombers incoming!''

''Damage report''... ''We've lost 60% of the fleet, their PD weapons were charged and hit the frigates, sir we need to leave now if we want to survive''

''Understood, get us out of here''

''Sir''

**HMS Duke of Cambridge**

''Sir, ships are leaving! Should we engage?''

''Negative, I want them tagged. See where they run to, if this escalates we might need somewhere to strike at ASAP''.

''Understood sir, shall I alert the Sun?''

''No, I want this a HME affair only. They caused the conflict, lets see if we can dissolve it without complications''.

''Sir, suns hailing us''.

''Captain Xing, we are aflling back through the gate. Do you require assistance?''

''No captain Hawthorne, you have given us enough aid. I hope to see you in more peaceful times and let us pray we did not just start a war, Xing out''.

''Comms. Get me high command''

''putting them through''

''I assume youve seen the report?''

''Reading it now captain''

''Orders regarding the situation?''

''Come back through the relay, then jump to where you pick up their tag. I'm trusting you on this hawthorne, use force if neccesary. For queen and empire.

''Understood, for queen and empire''.

''Take us through, do you have there location?''

''Sir, they jumped to a nearby system then jumped a good 120 light years in seconds. Im assuming they used another gate, they altered course a light year out from where they are now''.

''Right, take us to the first gate. Once we're through we go slip-space to there current location, give them a surprise.''

''Understood, ETA til arrival – 27 minutes''.


	4. Chapter 2 - HME First contact Part II

**Citadel – Council chambers**

''Run through that one more time for me?'' Tevos, the asari councilor, asked.

'' we were pursuing the pirates as ordered when we backed them into a corner against an un-activated relay. We engaged them and after our first volley the relay activated bringing a small research ship through, a batarian opened fire on it and destroyed it. After a further wait a battlegroup slightly smaller than my fleet cam through and immediately opened fire on us. The batarians moved to assist us and we disabled their fleet save a dreadnaught and damaged destroyer, then IT came through'', IT was what they came to call the fleet that had outright destroyed their fleet in almost a single volley.

''Yes, you say they had D.E.W. Weapons?'' the salarian councilor asked – dantius.

''Yes ma'am, they were of different design and used no Eezo. We believe them to be of a different race.'' and ever the sarcastic one sparatus said '' what lead you to believe that, the different design, weaponry or the fact that a single species would never use two different tecnoligies?''

''Anyway, they came through and after our first volley they seemed to be communicate with the other dreadnaught before opening fire on us. The D.E.W. Tore through the ship ignoring shields and their strategies were highly organised. I would personally say the first group were like krogan, brash and impulsive while the second group were turian like, militaristic and exact. Everything they done maximised our losses and minimised theirs''.

Tevos interrupted before Sparatus could get any more irate ''Desolias, although running is not in the turian way – I feel you did the right thing'', with a quesioning look from the turians and a nod from the salarian she continued '' had you stayed, fought and lost we would never know of this D.E.W. Weilding enemy until it was too late, for now however – you are on leave until further noti-''

She was interrupted by a young C-sec turian bursting in, ''Councillors, unidentified ships in the cluster – they sent first contact and from what we know they want to speak with you!''

Dantius was the first to respond ''understood Officer Vakarian, can you personally bring them and a willing asari officer for a meld here?''

''Yes Councilor!''

**Destiny Ascension**

Matriarch Lidanya, captain of the flagship of the citadel fleet, watched as a moment that would decide the future of not only the citadel species 0but also these new 'orion's arm' species in a make or break moment, ''Comms. Send them the docking plan, sensors keep an eye on their output'' this was met with a string of ''aye aye'' before ''confirmed'' and then,

''Ma'am, detecting energy buildup across the spetrum!'' the Matriarch had no idea why this came as a surprise, this was a species that had the firepower to eliminate a turian patrol fleet.

''Open fire, we cannot allow that dreadnaught to fire on us!''

**HMS Duke of Cambridge**

Captain Hawthorne had been standing on the bridge when his comms. Officer had informed him a docking plan had been received, he ordered engineering to power up the engines but his sensors operator interrupted him mid-sentence ''Sir!massive energy build-up across the enemy fleet! Theyre going to open fire!'' Hawthorne was completely taken back by this, why would a species that seemed so open to diplomacy suddenlyhave a change of heart?

''Helmsman, get us out of here!''

''Where to sir?''

''anywhere in Human space!''

''Aye aye, plotting course''

Just as the fleet was about to make the jump the flagship opened fire, ripping the newly commissioned destroyer _HMS Duncan_ to shreds. After sticking around just long enough to see that there was indeed no survivors, the fleet was gone.

**Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Military HQ**

''This was an unprovoked attack on Her Majesties forces, we must retaliate!'' Brigadier General Montreal all but screamed at the command staff.

''We will respond but first we must assess the situation, Captain Hawthorne, what is your assessment of this situation?''

''Sirs and Ma'ams, the Mark I's and II's tore there dreadnaughts to shreds – I believe if we utilize them to the extremes then we will be able to successfully repel any attempted invasion of our sovereign territory, we are however left with two choices regarding this''.

''Which are?'' Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh and Lord High Admiral of the Navy asked,

''We can either play to this strength and build more destroyers and dreadnaughts with these weapons assuming the enemy gives us long enough to complete them, or we can go for the easier produced defensive destroyers and protect the dreadnaughts we have and slowly replace and add more dreadnaughts as time goes on'', another recommendation I would have for the army and Marines would be the implementation of the new Atlas mechs, mass produce them and if their ship board weapons are anything to go by then their infantry would have to outnumber an atlas at least 25 to 1 in order to bring it down. Pair them with a contingent of an infantry platoon at a time and perhaps 2 atlas' per new Challanger II tank and our ground forces will be supreme''.

**Citadel Council chambers**

'There was a large power build-up at the time which we believed to be them charging their main weapon and so we opened fire destroying one of their destroyers, when we went to investigate it self destructed and all we got was some pretty metals. Upon review we believe that the ship was actually powering up it's engine and we were just jumpy over the rumours of their spinal weapon'', that will be all Matriarch Lidanya. Tevos was normally the voice of reason though today one of her 'jumpy' matriarchs may have just started a war.

''we should attack now, before they have time to gather their forces'', as much as tevos hated to admit it she was inclined to agree sparatus though she would wait to see what dantius had to say first.

''No, I believe we need to find another point of entry into their space and use it to open diplomatic communications and if that goes wrong then we can use it for military strategical purpouses. With everyone agreed it was settled, STG would look for a backdoor into the unknown enemies space and see what they could find.

**2 Years Later**

Over the past 2 years the council had spent it's time looking for a dorr that never existed while HME's Royal Navy's stealth ship's had been dropping in and out of citadel space as they pleased, the AF, union and USA had all grown restless over the actions at relay 314 at were all building there militaries up – the royal navy had been to though they hid just how much the Navy and Army had grown over the past 2 years, Her Majesties Armed Forces were now the largest Human fighting force, almost as large as the Union and AF armed forces combined, and now numbered at:

**NAVY:**

Carriers: 30

Dreadnaughts: 60

Destroyers: 480 Destroyers

Frigates: 2,880

Fighters: 30,170

Seekers: 15

Personnel: 2,783,176

**ARMY**

Tanks: 100,000

Atlas: 300,000

IFV: 300,000

Assorted Vehicles: 651,000

Infantry Personnel: 7,589,542

Assorted Personnel: 3,542,567

Total Personnel: 13,934,109

Special Forces Personnel: [Sensored]

Having tripled in size over the last 2 years and numbering above the USA in all but manpower, though technologically superior and more efficient, HMAF are a truly awe inspiring force.

High Command had decided that they would go through the relay with 2 battlegroups and leave a further 5 Battlegroups within a minutes jump at any given time and the remainder of the fleet spread throughout the Empires space. The 2 'spear-head' battlegroups were to invade and secure the first citadel planet they come across before opening talks for negitiations, if they attempted to liberate the world reinforcements would be sent from one of the 5 battlegroups on standby while the others attacked the point of origin of the enemy fleet.

Now Rear-Admiral Hawthorne would be to lead the battlegroup aboard his flagship, the newly commissioned Prince of Wales V2 Class Dreadnaught, the _HMS Duke Of Edinburgh, _his job was simple, engage any targets deemed hostile and eliminate them 0 prisoners would be nice though, considering those Salarian Spec-Ops they captured were downright silent about anything other than species, name and rank – well bred military men, alien, things...

**Destiny Class dreadnaught – _the Pride of Thessia_**

Matriarch Archelia T'Veross was not a happy woman. After the horrible first contact with this new alien species she was deployed here, by relay 314, to patrol and make sure no attacks were coming. She may have been in command of a dreadnaught in the largest class in citadel space, but she doubted that an asari dreadnaught backed up by two turian dreadnaughts and there destroyer and frigate escort would be able to repel a full on invasion.

She was brought from her thoughts by a sensor operator alerting her to the relay activating, from the other side. The ships she had read about came through, but the reports done them no justice. All sharp edges but still flowing like a thessian painting, dark black finish but the singular thing that stood out the most – was the strange rectangular insignia; a white box with a red vertical/horizontal cross and a misture of red/white/blue in the top left quadrant which sat further from her on the ships bow and was followed by White marks in what she assumed was the species native toungue, she ordered her optical operator to snap pictures of each ship and upload them to the database – perhaps someone could make sense of it.

Then the behemoth came through. Though only slightly larger than the dreadnaughts, the presence of this ship made it look thrice as large – it could possibly be larger than the Destiny class ships. Though stunned for a moment, the good little turian soldiers followed their orders to fire on anything that came through. She was about to give the oredr to do the same but then the turian capital ship went up in flames from a shot fired outside of her vision. When the sensors operator finally pinpointed what it was, T'Veross didn't like what she saw; another, identical fleet to the one currently engaging her. After what felt like a few seconds but in reality was a few minutes, the turian fleet was left in tatters and then they were being hailed – she had comms put it up on the screen. She had been hoping to get a good look at these creatures but was only mildly surprised when a helmeted figure came into her view. After 7 minutes of talking in his native toungue, very alien though it still ran off the toungue in a way no other citadel race could what with their clicks and squaks etc, he began speaking in asari and directly said,

''We have hacked your database and compiled a translation software, power down all non-essential systems and be prepared to be boarded. Any ship that resists will be destroyed.

A/N:

Fairly short chapter though the next will be longer and will be the WAR part of this.


End file.
